The present invention relates to generators or motors driven by water or other fluids and more particularly to a generator or motor which may be driven by water pressures typically found in municipal water lines. The invention also relates to a generator or motor for use in a hybrid mobile vehicle wherein the generator/motor can be driven by water (or other fluids) pressurized by any conventional method. Moreover, the present invention could be employed in any number of other uses, such as in power generation systems where the invention proves to be a more efficient generator/motor than another element in the power generation value-chain.
Municipal water systems typically pressurize water in system's lines to around 70 psi to 90+ psi. While a water pressure of approximately 20 psi to 40 psi is largely adequate for most end-user's purposes, the higher pressure is maintained for peak water demands or emergency (e.g. fire) water demands. This means that 70 psi to 30 psi of unneeded excess water pressure normally exists in most water lines. To the inventor's knowledge, there has been no attempt in the prior art to recover useful power from this excess water pressure. It would be a significant advance in the art to provide an apparatus and method which are capable of recovering useful power from pressurized water lines.